This Night

Chapter 201

Author's Note: I'm loving all the reviews! Not finding the priest right now, yeah, story diversion. Really? Me? I'd do something like that? Well yeah, it's what I do. Man there's a lot of M's around! Review please!

Group POV:

Axel walked beside Jewel and gently touched the babies head. "She's beautiful," he told her as they walked.

"Yeah, I think we'll keep her," Jewel said with a smile. "You were with Daryl and Beth?"

"Yeah, got out with them, but Beth, she was just taken. Black car, white cross. I keep on repeating it to myself, like if I don't, I'll forget it. I feel like I should talk to Daryl about it, but with everything that happened, really hasn't been time. He would have kept running after it, but I made him stop. Maybe I shouldn't have, maybe we should have kept running," Axel told her.

"Then you wouldn't have found Rick, Mar, Mitch, Michonne, Carl and Lexi. Then you wouldn't have found the rest of us," Jewel pointed out.

"Things happen for a reason," Mika piped up.

Jewel smiled. "Yeah, they do. We all just went through a lot, processing a lot. We'll find her, that I'm sure of," she told Axel.

Rick let the group go ahead of him and let Jewel catch up with him. "You doing alright? You need to stop?" he asked her.

"Rick, we're alright. The further we get away from Terminus, the happier I'll be," Jewel answered. "Plus I'd really like to be able to sleep on a bed tonight," she teased.

Rick laughed. "Mind if I take her for a bit?" he asked. "Where did you find the front pack?"

"Jes found it…same kind of room Carol found Daryl's crossbow and the extra weapons," Jewel said as she took Hope out of the carrier. "There's a good girl," she said as she passed her to him.

"So mommy named you Hope huh? That fits you, sweet pea. What about a middle name?" Rick asked as he unzipped his jacket a little and placed her in it so her head was sticking out and zipped it back up.

Jewel smiled. "Was leaving that up to you," she said as she placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Dad, Judy needs a bottle and a diaper change," Carl told him.

Rick nodded. "It's a good time to stop and take a break. Merle, stay with Jewel, make her drink water and eat," he told her as he kissed her. "Twenty minutes," he told everyone as he kissed Hope's head. "Let's go take a walk and check on everyone, sweet girl. Your mommy named you right, you know that baby girl? You're a little beacon of hope. You and big sister Judy, yes," he said as he spotted Tara.

Tara looked at him. "You seem to be growing another head out of your jacket," she teased as she looked nervously at him.

Rick gave a small chuckle. "Yeah," he said. "You didn't want to be there, that's why I tried to talk with you. Glenn told me that you saved his and Mitch's life," he said.

Tara shrugged and gave a small smile. "They saved mine."

Rick smiled back. "That's how it works with us, right?" he told her.

"Right," Tara said.

"Get something to eat, we're heading out in a few minutes," he told her as he turned around.

"Hey," Tara said as she held out her hand for a fist pump.

Rick looked at her and laughed as he adjusted his grip on Hope and gave her a fist pump.

"It's kind of her thing," Mitch said as he walked up.

"It's a good thing," Rick told him.

Merle, Daryl and Jewel's POV:

Merle held out the water bottle. "Take it," he told her.

"I'm not drinking your water. I already had my share," Jewel said as she sharpened her knife on the tree.

"Don't make me force you to drink it, baby sister. You can't be mad at Officer Friendly for wanting to take extra care with you. You just pushed out a human being out a week ago. Now, I've never had that painful experience myself, but I sure the hell remember all the yelling our momma did while she was pushing you out. Said you were gonna be the smart one of the bunch with that big head of yours," Merle told her. "You should be restin' and not escaping from some fucked up place. That baby isn't going to survive if you don't, and I don't think Office Friendly would either. Now take it," he told her as he held out the water bottle again.

Jewel took it. "I was back at school the week after Summer was born."

Daryl huffed as he joined them. "Yeah because you were to hard headed to stay at home and get any more behind. This aint exactly the same thing, you know?"

Jewel let out a bit of a laugh. "You obviously haven't been a teenage girl who was the subject of gossip. I actually think I prefer this to that."

Daryl shook his head. "Why did you stay behind at Terminus? Why didn't you go with Jes and Mika? Hope needs you."

"I would have slowed Jes down, maybe even got them caught. I made the decision, not Jes. It was mine. I knew Mika and Hope were in good hands, and I knew I'd be more help on the inside. So I don't want either one of you to blame Jes, this was my decision. Plus, no one can kill a Dixon but a Dixon right?" Jewel asked.

"How you doing otherwise? I saw what happened with that woman," Daryl told her.

"I'm missing something. What happened?" Merle asked. "One of you better start talkin' now."

Jewel looked at Daryl. "I don't know what happened with the crazy bat. She had tried to take my baby, she was calling her another name, she had been taunting me about how I was going to die and she was going to raise her. Seeing you, Rick, Bob and Glenn like that, and having seen the four men before, heads cut off, I snapped. I wasn't conscious of what I was doing, not until I heard Rick's voice. Then when I saw her head bashed in, I know I should have felt remorse, a good person would have, but all I felt was relief."

Merle glanced at Daryl then at her. "Baby sister, you are a good person, the best of the three of us. What you did, it was to protect your family, your husband, your baby. I know all about revenge, was a time not to long ago that I wanted revenge on Officer Friendly and the Chinese kid," he said.

"Korean," both Daryl and Jewel told him.

"Yeah, yeah, Korean. You aint bad baby sister, you love deeply. That's a good thing," Merle told her.

Daryl nodded. "Rick understood, trust me," he said as he patted her knee and stood up.

Carol and Ronnie's POV:

Ronnie placed her hand on Ty's shoulder. "I'll go with Carol to get water. I need to talk to her."

Ty looked at her. "She did what she thought was right, to try and save us all."

"I need to talk to her," Ronnie said as she walked down to the lake. "Carol."

Carol turned around and looked up at her. "Ronnie. Thought Ty was coming to help me."

"He was, but I stopped him. We need to talk, I need to talk. I know what you did, I knew before Rick found out. I had forgiven you, for my sake. Anger would have just made me sloppy, would have ate away at me, and then I couldn't have done what was needed to be done," Ronnie explained.

"And now? Now that I'm here?" Carol asked.

"I'm grateful, you saved us," Ronnie answered as she filled the water bottles. "That's what you were trying to do back at the prison, save us. It may take me time, Carol, to trust you again, to be able to consider you a friend, but I'll always be grateful for what you did today. You didn't have to come back, not after you were exiled, but you did," she told her as she finished filling a few water bottles. "Thank you," she said as she walked off.

Carol took a breath as she continued working. "Did you forget something?" she asked as she heard footsteps before she turned around. "Rick, Summer," she greeted. "Hello Hope," she said as she smiled. "If you want me to leave, just give me a bit to find a car."

"You aren't leaving again," Summer said as she bent down.

Rick nodded as Carol stood up. "I owe you everything," he told her.

Carol shook her head. "You owe Tyreese, he was at the prison. Joey and Summer, they met up with him before I did."

"You took a bullet out of my daughter's hip, you made sure she was alright. You got back to the prison, that's how you met up with them," Rick said. "Summer told me that you never hesitated."

"She's family, you all are," Carol said as she touched Hope's head. "I'd do it all again," she said. "Here," she said as she took his watch out of the fanny pack and held it up.

"How did you get that?" Summer asked.

"It was in one of there storage rooms," Carol answered.

"I saw them kill him, the kid," Rick told her as he held up her watch to her.

"No," Carol said.

"I still don't know about what you did, but I know you knew some things we didn't," Rick said. "I sent you out to this…" he told her.

"We sent you out to this," Summer corrected him.

"You said I could survive, you were right," Carol told them.

"We sent you out to this and now we're joining you. Will you have us?" Rick asked as Carol nodded. "Thank you."

Summer squeezed Carol's shoulder. "You should be getting Hope back to mom before she starts looking for her dad. We've got about ten miles to go. Should make it there by dusk," she said as they started walking back toward the rest of the group.

"So, you and Joey found this house. Alone? You weren't with Carol and Ty?" Rick asked.

Carol let out a small laugh. "We thought it was best to split up, take to coming from Terminus from separate directions, scope it out, meet up."

"You don't have to worry dad, the house had a library, I spent all night in there," Summer said with a grin as she walked back to the group.

"We ready to head out?" Glenn asked.

Rick nodded. "Summer said we're about ten miles out, should hit it by dusk."

Abe looked up. "We double time it, could make it there about an hour earlier."

Merle looked at him. "My sister just had a baby a week ago. She's done her share of running. If it takes us til dusk, it takes us til dusk. If it takes us longer, then it takes us longer. We go at her pace and the pace of the young ones in the group."

"We should send some scouts ahead, make sure we got no surprises waiting for us," Jes said.

"That's not a bad idea, like I said, we only checked the one house and the immediate area," Joey told them.

Rick nodded. "Jes who do you want to take?"

"Since Abraham is so gun ho on double-timing it, he can join me. Michonne? You up for it?" Jes questioned.

"I'm up for it," Michonne answered.

"I'm not leaving Eugene," Abe answered.

"I'll be here Abe, it's alright. We'll meet you there," Rosita said.

"I'll go. This way we can do pairs," Joey said as he squeezed Summer's hand. "See you in a bit," he said.

Rick nodded. "You got a flare to send up if there's trouble?" he asked Jes.

Jes nodded. "Yes. We'll see you there."

Michonne nodded. "You know, I want to hold that baby when we all get to the house. Just letting you know, I'm first in line. Wouldn't want Hope to get jealous of all the attention I give to Judy."

Jewel smiled. "I think I'm going to have to put a bell on Hope so I know where she is with everyone wanting to hold her. Be careful, all of you," she warned.

Author's Note: OK so they didn't get to the house and have alone time. Next chapter or the chapter after! Review please.